In certification schemes for Non Destructive Testing (NDT) personnel based on ISO 9712, the certification body has to fulfil the requirements of ISO/IEC 17024. Requirements (cl 5.2) ISO 9712 standard on which NDT’s certification schemes for persons are based, establish that NDT certificates expire at the end of a maximum period of validity of 5 years. This standard allows the “renewal” activity (cl 10.2) to be made up to 12 months after the expiration date.
For the activity of “recertification” (cl.11.1 ), it establishes that if recertification is applied for more than 12 months after expiry of the period of validity, it shall undergo a complete examination. This would imply that recertification process could be made within the following 12 months after the expiring date of the certificate.
Is this practice of applying for a renewal/recertification after the expiring date of the certificate consistent with third-party accredited certification under ISO 17024?
September 2021
ISO 17024 cl. 9.4.8 f) requires the certificate to include the date of expiry. Accordingly, the day after that date, the person is no longer certified: it cannot be assured that the person complies either with competence requirements or with scheme requirements, as a consequence, a normal recertification procedure cannot be applied to them, which is logically reserved for persons still certified (ISO 17024 cl. 9.6.2.).
Thus, with the rules of the certification schemes based on the international standard ISO 9712 , an alternative recertification procedure is introduced that may conflict with ISO 17024. So until the situation is clarified by the standardization bodies, this is only accepted as an exceptional situation under the following conditions:
- The recertification has been applied for, but could not be concluded before the expiry date of the existing certificate, as it is expected under normal circumstances.
- The resulting certificate must hold a recertification date consistent with the date of the recertification decision and must show the gap between the last certificate expiry date and the recertification, where the person has not been certified. The expiry date shall be based on prior recertification cycle.
This acceptance means that under the above conditions, the rules of the scheme for recertification may be applied.
Note 1. The answer only refers to “recertification” because the “renewal” activity does not correspond to a certification process according to ISO 17024.
Note 2. The question was received for ISO 9712:2012 but the answer is also applicable to ISO 9712:2021